A group saddled with the mandate of actualising the ambitions of the Igbo ethnic group to produce the next President of the country, Igbo Presidency Organisation of Nigeria (IPON), has been inaugurated in Aba, Abia State.

At the event, the National Chairman of the group, Hon. Ikechukwu Mgborogu said that the ambition of Ndigbo to produce the president of the country in 2019 is a dream which time had come and nothing would truncate it.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo recdently said that the southeast should be given a chance to produce the next President of the country, as the only leg of the Nigerian tripod that has been kept out of the position since 1999.

Obasanjo said that given that the North, southwest and the south-south had all had a shot at the office since the return of democracy in 1999, it was only natural and fair for the southeast region to be allowed to go for the Presidency.

Mgborogwu stated that every Igbo should embrace the project. “If the project has been failing in the past, nothing will make it fail this time,” he said.

According to him, the inauguration in Aba was only a take-off point. “In the few days ahead, the project would have taken over the nooks and crannies of the country even beyond the shores of Nigeria.

“We are mobilising at a large scale and speed. The event today is only a tip of the iceberg. In the weeks ahead, we shall be inaugurating the state chapters. IPON will have strong presence in major cities of the world,” Mgborogwu assured.

A former presidential aspirant, Dr. John Kennedy Osuala enjoined Ndigbo to buy into the project, adding that it holds the strongest prospect for them.

“If a President from the Igbo extraction is enthroned in 2019, it will go a long way in resolving the imbalance in the country. This is a project every Igbo should embrace because it holds the unique selling point,” he said.